Your Ultimate Gardening Guide.
Rules
I've been growing these sunflowers for a little over half a year and I think I'm always going to have these in rotation. The birds and bees love these beauties as one gets drunk off the pollen while the other snipes bugs from above.
Anyone ever harvested sunflower seeds to eat? How was the process and taste?
For what I'm seeing here, this variety of sunflower is not the type that would be used for making sunflower seeds. Usually the variety that is used has a much bigger circumference, perhaps around 12 inches. This variety will possibly yield maybe 30 seeds and at that, not the same seed needed for eating. Perhaps try a variety that is actually hybridized for culinary purposes - p.s love the pic, is the background removed, or are you in a cloudy mountainous place?
I took this when there was overcast in the afternoon, not close to any mountains
I was gonna ask about harvesting seeds too. Can you harvest them from any sunflower? Or are there specific types?
Here in northern New Zealand we’re into winter and the Mexican sunflowers are all blooming.
I know some farmers who have done this - basically they used a mesh bag when the petals fell off, and allowed the seeds to dry on the plant. (This is also how most commercial seed production happens, too.) I’m not sure what varieties are good for eating. But the general consensus among friends was that it was “more trouble than it’s worth.” Keep in mind, this is coming from tired end-of-season farmers :)
I'll tie a mesh bag to capture some seeds as rods I saw a lot laid out on my driveway